What Will They Show Us?

By summertime, we will begin to see a new clarity in the Middle East. The old narratives that American support for authoritarians undermined democratic awakenings; that Iraq was a catastrophe; that we need to reach out to totalitarian regimes like Iran, Libya, and Syria to ensure peace; that Israel continues to impede the future of the region will, with the new unrest, be proven valid or invalid in a way impossible to imagine just a few weeks ago.

Questions to be answered: Will promised new plebiscites reflect a desire for constitutional government and human rights, or simply advance, in Hamas style, the illiberal prejudices of the masses? Will the removal of authoritarians in Egypt and Tunisia, and perhaps a few in the Gulf, end roadblocks to better popular relations with the U.S., or sadly suggest that pro-Western strongmen were more liberal than their constituents?

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